One Semester
by La miseria y la muerte
Summary: Jenny gets sent to a boarding school with robot girls. Will she find out more about other robots, or more about herself?(Fan characters needed!)
1. Default Chapter

Mom put another oil can into the brown satchel suitcase.  
  
I sulked on the couch. "Remind me why I have to go."  
  
"This school is too soft for you." Mom said, "You need a school made for robot girls like you."  
  
"But mom, I like Tremerton High." I argued.  
  
"You should be grateful that there is a school for young robot girls like yourself. The La Grange boarding school for robot girls is a highly esteemed school and only a select number make it in. You are very lucky to be going there."  
  
"All my friends are at Tremertion High, though!"  
  
"Young lady, I have no time to argue with you. Now please, go pack your things."  
  
I sighed and walked up the stairs to my room. I got out a bag and starting packing some magazines when Brad climbed in through the balcony.  
  
"Hey Jen. Going on vacation?" Brad asked.  
  
"Hi Brad. The oppposite actually. I'm being sent away to prison!" I moped.  
  
"Prison?"  
  
"Actually, it's a Boarding School, but close enough."  
  
"Why do you have to go?"  
  
"Mom says I need to work with other robots, but I don't want to. I want to work with humans."  
  
"Tell her that."  
  
"I did! A million times, she doesn't listen!"  
  
"Cheer up, it won't be so bad."  
  
"A semester at a boarding school full of robot girls I don't know, yeah that sounds great." I rolled my eyes.  
  
"A whole semester? Man, I won't see you forever."  
  
"I know, this is gonna be the worst year ever!" I groaned.  
  
"Hey, cheer up! Look on the bright side." Brad said.  
  
"What exactly is on the bright side?" I asked him.  
  
"Well, you get to meet some fellow robots." He tried to cheer me up.  
  
"Don't get me started on felllow robots." I said, "After the silver shell and Vexus I've had enough of fellow robots for a while."  
  
"Maybe these robots will be different."  
  
"Doubt it."  
  
"XJ9! Are you finished packing?!" Mom shouted.  
  
"In a minute!" I shouted back.  
  
"Well, I better go," Brad started to climb down the balcony. "Don't forget to write."  
  
"You too." I said as he left.  
  
***  
  
Okay, I bet you're thinking 'that's it? where's the rest of the story?' well, so far, I need some help from my fellow mlaatr fans. I need fan characters. If you want to submit a fan character to be in the story, then all I need is this info.  
  
1. their name  
  
2. what they look like (a description, or picture if you have one)  
  
3. their likes and dislikes  
  
4. their hobbies  
  
5. a short bio. or any other info. I should know.  
  
Please submit! I'm gonna need a bunch. 


	2. Second chapter

"Hurry up, XJ9!" Mom shouted.  
  
"Mom," I whined, "I don't wanna go."  
  
"XJ9, please," Mom said, "This will be an incredible oppurtunity for you to learn about other robots. Most of the time you're always with humans. I think you need to be around people more like yourself."  
  
"But mom," I said, "I like Tremerton High. My friends are there. I won't know any of these robots."  
  
"This could be your only opportunity to be with other robots. Don't let anything like this pass you by."  
  
I sulked as I went outside and got in the car.  
  
"We're supposed to arrive at the airport soon. We'll be right on schedule." Mom said as we got into the car.  
  
I could tell that this would be a long semester.  
  
***  
  
I went through the crowded airport and made my way to the place were I would board the plane to a whole new life. As I handed the woman my ticket, I waved goodbye to mom. She called out, "I love you sweetie!" And I had been embarassed at the time, but I still smiled and waved as I got on the plane.  
  
I had put all of my bags through the luggage center before, except for one which I had held beside me at the time. I was staring at my ticket and trying to look for where I would sit. As I looked up I nearly jumped back. Never before had I seen so many robots. There were so many, you can hardly begin to imagine. A whole plane full of girl robots like me who would go to the same school as me.  
  
I looked back down at my ticket and began to blush. I found my seat and stuffed my one bag above me in the overhead compartment. I sat down next to a girl robot who looked sort of like me, except she was golden colored and had flowers in her pigtails. She was reading a book, but she looked up as I sat down. "Hi, I'm honey," She introduced herself and we shook hands.  
  
"I'm Jenny." I said.  
  
As I sat down I decided to listen to some music, so I took out my headphones and started listening to some music. I sat there for a while just listening to music, until a teacher robot came up to me, plugged a microphone into my headset and screamed, "Ms. Wakeman! May I have your attention!" I put my headphones back into my head as everyone laughed. My first public humiliation at a new school, what joy! The teacher walked back up to the front of the plane and started making an announcement.  
  
The robot next to me chuckled.  
  
"Yeah, yeah," I said sarcasticly, "That's so funny!"  
  
"Sorry," She said, "Don't worry about the teachers though, they're tough. My dad helped build them." She sighed.  
  
"Harsh." I said.  
  
"Tell me about it." Honey said, "So, what were you listening to?"  
  
"Just a little bit of music to pass the time." I said.  
  
The teacher walked over to me again, "Miss Wakeman," Her high-pitched and stern voice said, "How many times must I ask you to plaese pay attention!"  
  
"Sorry." I said, wishing I could disappear.  
  
She walked back up to the front of the plane and continued talking.  
  
"What's she talking about?" I whispered to Honey.  
  
"Nothing, just rules about the school. We'll get a book once we get there, so don't bother to listen." She told me.  
  
"Thank you that will be all." The teacher said suddenly.  
  
Me and Honey laughed.  
  
"What's everyone laughing about?" A girl with long blonde hair and green eyes turned around and asked.  
  
"Oh, nothing." Honey said as she held down a smile.  
  
I held my hand over my face and chuckled. "Um, I'm Jenny." I said, "And this is Honey."  
  
"Nice to meet you guys," She shook our hands, "I'm Alex."  
  
"Hi Alex." I said.  
  
Alex had a nice paint job, she had an orange star on the front of her and her legs were an almost dark blue. She had beautiful pink lips.  
  
"Attention everyone!" An emerald green teacher robot with thick black glasses and a brown bun in her said as she stood in the front of the crowded plane, "There are forms being passed around asking for the electives you want for the semester. Please read through each one carefully and hand them to me before you get off the plane. That is all." She sat down.  
  
Forms were passed to both me and Honey and we said thank you and began looking through them.  
  
"Man, look at these classes," Honey said, "Chemistry, Mechanics, Exploring Technology, they think all us robots like science and technology and that's it! They don't think we have interests."  
  
"Look at the options for Language Arts!" Alex said, "Beginning English, Advanced English, and Creative Writing! That's hardly anything!"  
  
"There are hardly any classes to choose from." I said.  
  
"'Band'" Honey laughed, "Like anyone will take that. They say that the La Grange school band is the worst band in the world."  
  
"I'd rather listen to music than play it." I said.  
  
"Do you listen to Avril Lavigne?" Alex asked me.  
  
"Who's she?" I asked.  
  
"I'll get her CD out of my case." Alex stood up and reached into her overhead compartment.  
  
Just then, the last robot boarded the plane. She had a pink kimono on and a purple pony tail accompanying her two bright red pigtails. Her paint job was a bright red. She was easily one of the most beautiful robots on the plane.  
  
"Excuse me!" She said as she came up to Alex.  
  
"Oh, Sorry," Alex said, "I was just-"  
  
Tsunami cut her off. "Out of my way!" She said as she pushed Alex back into her seat.  
  
"Hey!" I got up and shouted. "You can't do that!"  
  
She laughed. "Ha! Oh now please, who are you?" She asked.  
  
"I'm Jenny." I said, "Jenny Wakeman."  
  
"I'm Tsunami Suzuki." She said, "I'm trained heavily in battle. My whole family is."  
  
"You can't push people around like that!"  
  
"Watch me." Tsunami said and walked to her seat.  
  
"What a meanie." Honey said as she helped Alex back into her seat.  
  
"Who does she think she is treating people like that?" I said as I sat down.  
  
"It's alright you guys." Alex said, "I'll be fine. Anyway, here's an Avril Lavigne CD. Listen to it." She handed it to me.  
  
I shrugged, took it and popped it into my personal CD player. I listened to the first track 'Losing Grip' and I have to admit, I really liked it! She had a very good voice and all the songs were beautifully written. I listened to the CD until Honey lifted one of the headphones up and said, "We're going to lift off soon."  
  
I stopped the CD. "What?!" I had never been in a plane before.  
  
"Attention passengers," The pilot said, "We will be lifting off soon. Please fasten your seatbelts."  
  
Honey calmly snapped her seatbelt together. I just sat there nervous and shaking in my seat.  
  
"Are you ok?" Honey asked.  
  
"Me? I'm fine, never better!" I said, sweating.  
  
"Are you gonna buckle your seatbelt?" she asked.  
  
"Oh, yeah! Of course!" I had a tight grip of the arm rest. "In a minute."  
  
"I'll get that for you."  
  
"No! No! Don't bother. I'll just be getting that now..." I used my stretchy arm and wrapped my arms around the arm rests and then buckled my seatbelt. Honey gave me a weird look.  
  
"I'm fine!" I said, "Never better!"  
  
"Sure." Honey said.  
  
I nervously sat in my seat and closed my eyes. I felt the ground being lifted up underneath me and I nearly cried in fear. And then suddenly, where I expected death, there was nothing. Everything just seemed to stop suddenly and I was nowhere.  
  
"You can go let go of the arm rest." Honey said.  
  
I opened my eyes. Honey was still there. I was still there. We were all still there. Everything had been okay.  
  
"Wheh." I slowly breathed.  
  
That's when I realized that almost everyone was looking at me. I suppose I had looked pretty stupid, sitting there sweating and panting in my seat and holding onto my arm rest for dear life. I hadn't even gotten to the school yet and I already felt like dying from embarassment. The whole rest of the trip I just listened to Alex's Avril Lavigne CD and hoped that no one would remember.  
  
***  
  
"Attention children!" The teacher made another announcement near the end of the flight, "Soon we will be landing. When you leave, please grab a school map and then enter the building and head for the auditorium immediately. That will be all."  
  
I shivered in my seat at the thought of landing.  
  
"Calm down." Honey whispered to me.  
  
"I will, I will." I said.  
  
The plane landed with no embarassment on my part, thank God! Honey and I got up and grabbed our bags in the overhead compartment. Because I had to write my last minute class choice-choir-I ended up falling a little behind Honey as everyone hurried out of the plane like elementary students getting out of a field trip bus. As I shuffled forward, I bumped into another robot and she dropped a small pile of about four books she was carrying.  
  
"My manga!" She screamed and franticly started picking them up.  
  
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" I bent down and helped her pick them up.  
  
"That's okay." She said, "Not your fault."  
  
"I'm Jenny." I said as I handed her the last of her books, which turned out to be Japanese comic books. Apparently, they were called manga.  
  
"I'm Heather." She said, "these are just some comics I read whenever, you know."   
  
"Yeah, mhm." I said as we were pushed out of the plane my various forces.  
  
We all poured into the school and in a vast wave of confusion, we all wildly searched for the auditorium. There was one map you saw straight ahead of you as you walked into the school, and that was it. Nobody knew where they were going.  
  
"Where the hell is the auditorium?!" I heard someone scream.  
  
"Hurry! We have to be there in five minutes!" Another robot shouted.  
  
I turned to Heather. "Where do we go?" I asked, even though I knew that she had no idea.  
  
"Let's just go somewhere!" She grabbed my hand and we ran straight down a hall and didn't look back for one second.  
  
If this were just another fake made-up story, Heather and I would have found the auditorium at the end of that hall, but because this was High School, we ended up in the gymnasium. There was no assembly there, just some guys playing basketball, and any other time Heather and I would have stayed and watched. We had an assembly to go to though, so we started running through halls until we finally found the auditorium-five minutes late!  
  
We tried to sneak in nonchalantly, but almost everyone turned and looked at us. Even though we pretended they didn't. We shuffled to the nearest seat, still trying to be unnoticed and silent, and then we sat down and started to repress the memory.  
  
"As I was saying," The teacher in front, who turned out to be the principal, said, "The La Grange boarding school for robot girls and boys, is the first ever school designed specificly for robots. We ask you to please treat this school like the highly esteemed place it is. You are representing all robots in the future. We expect appropriate and mature conduct from all of you! Now, as you leave, there will be a regristration table outside. Tell them your first and last name, and they will give you an envelope that will have a rule book, room key, and a few other things. On the rooms note, the east wing of this building will be for girls, and the west for boys. Now please exit the auditorium in an orderly fashion, that will be all."  
  
"C'mon! Let's go!" Heather nearly tore my arm off.  
  
I quickly got up and she pulled me through the ravenous crowd to the registration desk.  
  
"Excuse me!" Tsunami said as she headed to the desk. She glared at me. "Hello!" She said.  
  
"Hi." I turned away from her.  
  
"Move it!" She ordered and pushed me to the side. "Tsunami Suzuki." She said sweetly to the registration robot, who only scanned for her file, handed it to her, and then waited for the next robot. An automated robot, very primative.  
  
"I can't belive she did that!" Heather said as she helped me up.  
  
"I'm alright." I said as I rubbed my head. I turned to the registration droid. "Jenny Wakeman." I said.  
  
He handed me my file and I exited the maniacal crowd all fighting over the next spot in line. I opened up my file folder and immediately grabbed my key and searched for my room.  
  
I wandered down numerous halls until I found room 207. The strangest thing happened as I pulled out my key, I heard a 'Caw' noise from the inside. I imagined that I was going crazy and just decided to move all my luggage into my room before thinking about the noise. I opened the door to find a robot with short black hair chasing after a crow. The situation was so awkward and insane that I nearly just turned around and ran screaming. She caught the crow and put him in his cage. "Oh, hi," She said, noticing me for the first time, "Sorry, Simon's lock sometimes gets loose."  
  
"It's okay." I said. I don't think I could have said anything else. I put my suitcases on the floor. I saw that in the room there were three bunkbeds, one desk with a computer and phone on it, and a closet it in the back.  
  
"I'm Molly Stoneheart." She said.  
  
"Jenny Wakeman." I introduced myself.  
  
Molly was painted black all over pretty much. She had short black hair, and looking at her almost made you, well afraid.  
  
I must have looked very frightened, because she said, "I was built to work at an amusement park."  
  
"What kind of amusement park?" I asked.  
  
"A haunted house." She said.  
  
"Oh, I get it." I said, "That's why you're so-" I stopped myself, "Um...black."  
  
"I know, I know," Molly said, "I look just plain scary, but hey, I was built this way, and I suppose I can't change that."  
  
I smiled nervously. "So how many people, er, robots will be in this room?"  
  
"Six."  
  
I gasped. "In this tiny room?! This could barely hold four!"  
  
"Low budget." Molly said.  
  
Another girl walked into our room right then. She looked the place up and down and carried her several bags in. "Nice looking closet," She said, "Where's the room?"  
  
"This is the room," Molly said irritably, "Now pick a bed."  
  
"THIS is the room?" she could barely believe it. "This isn't even as big as the servant's rooms at my house! And trust me, my mom and dad didn't overpay for the servants."  
  
"Do you want a top or bottom bunk?" Molly grew impatient.  
  
"I'm Jenny." I extended my hand to hers.  
  
She looked me as Brit and Tiff had many a time. "I'm Ruby." She said without touching my hand.  
  
Ruby had a paint job that was a pink color, and she was embedded with many rubies. Hence her name. She was as beautiful as Tsunami.  
  
The bunk beds were arranged with one against the wall opposite the door, and another on the left, and the last on the right. She tossed all of her bags on the top bunk farthest away from the door. Molly's was on the right. "I'm going to get the rest of my things." She left.  
  
"What's her problem?" I asked after the door slammed shut.  
  
"Her parents are rich and bought her from a scientist." Molly said, "They found a ruby mine several years ago and ever since have been making a fortune off the jewels. It's all gone to her head."  
  
"Oh." I said.   
  
For some reason, I felt sorry for her.  
  
Just as I had put my luggage on the remaining top bunk, we heard the door open, but instead of Ruby coming back, there was a different robot there. She had a purple ponytail with a curve to it, and her top was painted white and the rest of her was red. "I'm Jazz." She said.  
  
"I'm Jenny." I shook her hand, it was nice seeing a smiling face in our room.  
  
Molly gave her a slight look. "Molly." She said.  
  
Jazz gave Molly an almost-dirty look.  
  
"You can have the bed under mine." I offered, trying to keep her from getting mad at Molly. It seemed as if no one liked her.  
  
"Sure." Jazz said, smiling again, as she put her bags on the bottom bunk.  
  
"I cannot believe it!" Ruby shouted as she walked in, "No bellboy is out there to get my things! How am I supposed to survive in this dump?!"  
  
Jazz frowned again. I winced. I didn't see an easy year coming.  
  
"Jenny," Ruby said, "Would you be a dear and carry my things in. I'm absolutely exhausted."  
  
"It must be pain-staking doing your own work." Molly said sarcasticly.  
  
"Excuse me?" Ruby said sharply.  
  
"What?" Molly said.  
  
"Did I just hear what I think I did?" Ruby said.  
  
"You mean what I just said about you being lazy and obnoxious?"  
  
"Do you even know who I am?" Ruby said, "I'm Ruby Proy! Daughter to Mark and Lily Proy who own the world-famous Proy Ruby foundation!"  
  
"So?" Molly said.  
  
"SO?! I could have your name trashed into bits if I wanted. Don't push me." Ruby said.  
  
"Just because you're one of them doesn't mean you have the right to tell me what to do!"  
  
Ruby sneered. "You better watch it Morticia." Ruby turned to me again, "Come Jenny. I am in need of your assistance."  
  
She grabbed my arm, and I never said a word, was just dragged through the door.  
  
I don't get it, I thought, Why does she like me? What did I do?  
  
"Here we are," Ruby announced.  
  
My jaw dropped. She must have had six bags sitting outside our door.  
  
"What is all this stuff?" I asked as I picked up two bags.  
  
"Personal items." She answered stuffily.  
  
We dragged all her luggage into the room. I nearily tore an arm off dragging that stuff.  
  
Ruby watched me as I did. "Don't break anything." She said as if I was a hired hand.  
  
I sneered at her, but she didn't seem to notice.  
  
She smiled as I finished. "Thank you, dear." She said.  
  
"Um, my name is Jenny." I said.  
  
"Whatever." She rolled her eyes.  
  
***  
  
Woo-hoo! Finally chapter two! Yeah, um, oh yeah, I must be giving credit now!  
  
Ruby belongs to me  
  
Tsunami and Molly belong to Anthony Logatto  
  
Heather belongs to HeatherRobot  
  
Alex belongs to Invader Alex  
  
Honey belongs to HoneyGirl  
  
Jazz belongs to Brytt Bratt  
  
Jenny belongs to Rob Renzetti  
  
Alright, I think that's everyone. Sorry if I massacred any characters! BTW, these aren't all the robots that will be there, more introduced in the next chapters, I promise. 


	3. Third Chapter

[Author's Note]: Oh, geeze, 30 reviews already?! You guys flatter me, really. I am introducing more characters, but it would be very difficult to get all of them in, so more new ones in this chapter and the next, and, maybe, in the following. This will be a very long fanfic.  
  
And I'm so sorry for the two-month delay! I have a problem where I start new fics instead of finishing my other ones!  
  
After what seemed like no time, another knock came to our door followed by another roommate. She had a yellow skirt and yellow top with a V-neck and black dots down the center. Her hair was two black funnel-shaped pigtails and her hands had yellow gloves.  
  
Ruby looked at her in disgust and the rest of us in curiosity.  
  
Someone has to reach out, I thought. "I'm Jenny." I said and shook her yellow-gloved hand. The gloves turned out to be made of metal.  
  
"My mom calls me XKR-12," She said, "But you can call me Kerry."  
  
You really couldn't tell much about Kerry by looking at her. She seemed like the rest of us but different. There wasn't any label you could make for her from a first impression. Unless you were Ruby, who was basicly a label-maker for people.  
  
"Are you seriously going to be staying in this room?" Ruby asked Kerry.  
  
She frowned. She had just walked in barely two minutes ago, and already Ruby had hurt her. "Yes," Kerry said, "I am."  
  
Ruby rolled her eyes and continued taking fancy things out of her bag.  
  
"Don't mind her." I whispered to Kerry.  
  
"You can take the bunk under mine." Molly offered.  
  
Kerry's spirits were lifted and she gladly accepted Molly's offer.  
  
The last person to be sharing our dysfunctional room with us entered then. She was short, and had brown hair with a red bolt. She had a red top, blue pants and dark blue boots. She smiled as she came in.  
  
She noticed immediately the last remaining bed, under Ruby's, and put her things there. "I'm Sunny." She said, either to everyone or to no one.  
  
Ruby looked down from her bed at her, the label-maker in her head ticking away. She smiled.  
  
"Hello Sunny." Ruby said.  
  
Ruby seemed to be playing some kind of game with Sunny, winning her over maybe, or, perhaps, she was trying to make Sunny win her over.  
  
Poor thing, I thought, she hasn't even seen Ruby in the last hour. She doesn't know what's coming.  
  
I decided to mind my own business for a while. I'd had enough confusion for one day.  
  
There was a knock on the door. I opened it to see Honey standing there.  
  
"Jenny!" She screamed, "Come on we have to hurry!" She grabbed my hand.  
  
"What's going on?" I asked, "Does someone need my help?"  
  
"What are you talking about?"  
  
"You know, help, world-saving, you sound like my mom when she wants me to defeat the Cluster."  
  
"No, it's nothing like that. Our schedules are in the cafeteria! But we have to hurry before everyone else finds out!"  
  
"Wait a minute," I stopped her, "How do you know this? And how did you know where my room was?"  
  
"First question: Heather told me. Second question: Heather told me."  
  
"Geez, what doesn't she know?" I rolled my eyes.  
  
"Very funny, now come on! We have to go!" She started running with me again.  
  
We arrived at the cafteteria after a few minutes of running.  
  
"C'mon," She nearly tugged my arm off again dragging me to the other side of the room to get our schedules.  
  
I picked up mine and started to read it.  
  
Hour 1 Choir  
  
Hour 2 Gym  
  
Hour 3 Art  
  
Hour 4 Biology  
  
Hour 5 Geometry  
  
Hour 6 Lunch  
  
Hour 7 English  
  
Hour 8 History  
  
Hour 9 Literature  
  
Choir? Was that the last minute class I had chosen? I think it was. What is 'Choir'? I asked myself. I shrugged. Can't be anything bad.  
  
I ran through the hall. I was almost late for my first day of choir! I zipped around a corner and kept running. Just a few more hallways I told myself.  
  
"Hey!" Someone shouted.  
  
I sighed. Not another one. I turned around. Best get this over with.  
  
"Yes, I am that robot girl-"  
  
"Can you tell me where the Chemistry room is?"  
  
"Huh?" I said, awestrucken. I stared back at the face in front of me. Oh wait, I reminded myself, everyone here is a robot, like me. No one is going to stop me in the hall about this stuff anymore. I'm just like everyone else. This is gonna be better than I thought!  
  
I blushed. "Uh, I'm Jenny."  
  
"Anthony." He said. He was dark blue and had thick rimmed glasses. "The Chemistry room?"  
  
"Oh, down that hall on the left." I said, I had seen it yesterday while going to the auditorium.  
  
"Thanks." He said and waved as he walked away.  
  
I just watched him leave. "Yes!" I said. I'm not a freak anymore! I momentarily celebrated this victory in my head before rememebering I had a choir room to get to.  
  
I ran down the hall and got into the room at the last minute. I was going so fast, I accidently ran into a short robot with a black dress.  
  
"I'm so sorry!" I said as I helped her up.  
  
"It's all right." She stood up.  
  
She had black hair, with purple streaks on her pigtails and black boots. Her eyes were blue.  
  
"I'm Maria." She said.  
  
"Jenny." I shook her hand.  
  
The teacher stood in the front of the room. "All right class, time to begin." She announced.  
  
There weren't any desks, we all stood in rows on stands. Maria stood next to me.  
  
"To begin class, we're going to test your vocal range." the choir teacher said.  
  
"What does that mean?" I whispered to Maria.  
  
"Just sing as high and as low as you can." She said.  
  
"I'm not sure if I know how ..." I admitted.  
  
"Just try."  
  
The teacher stared at us. "Miss MR-A3, since we're so chatty today, perhaps you would like to begin."  
  
Maria shrugged. "Sure."  
  
The choir teacher started playing her piano and Maria sang along with the notes. From what I could tell, she reached some pretty high ones. I started to feel really nervous. What if I couldn't sing very well? I would feel like a fool for the rest of the semester.  
  
She went through several other rows and there were some really good singers. It was my turn then and I felt like a deer in the headlights.  
  
"Miss Wakeman," She said, "Please begin."  
  
She banged on that first key. I started to sing along. She kept going up higher and higher and I kept going with her. The entire class stared at me. Was I really that bad?  
  
I reached the last note and I felt almost breathless. "Miss Wakeman," she said, "That is simply one of the most marvelous performances a student has ever gave me!"  
  
I blushed. I was good! The class was staring at me, and they all must have thought the same thing.  
  
I felt great, on top of the world, but that was before she came to Ruby.  
  
"Miss Proy, please begin." The teacher instructed.  
  
Ruby closed her eyes and sang out the first note. It was sweet, sultry, not too sharp, not too flat, just ... perfect.  
  
She sang the next note and the next and she kept going forward; reaching higher. She passed my mark by several notes.  
  
She finished, not panting for breath like I had, but instead just calm and serene; as if she had done absolutely nothing extraordinary.  
  
The entire class clapped, except for me. I stared at my feet.  
  
"Miss Proy, you must be by far the best singer in this classroom!" The teacher said from her piano bench.  
  
Okay, so I guess that meant I was the second best. I mean, that was pretty good. I should have been happy ...  
  
But I wasn't.  
  
I began to practice everyday in my room after classes were done. I would pick up the book and start singing through some of the hardest songs. I tried and I practiced really hard; I wanted to be better than Tsunami so badly. I mean, I suppose it wasn't terribly bad to be number two. I wasn't the worst at least. But ... it killed me inside. I was incredibly overshadowed. Why did it come so easy to her? I felt like there was a giant wall in front of me. I practiced and practiced every single day. But I felt like I got worse everyday. It seemed as if the more I tried, the more terrible I became.  
  
Heather was the first to notice my obsession with it.  
  
"You need to relax, Jen. Quit comparing yourself to Ruby." She advised me.  
  
"But I wanna be the best." I admitted.  
  
"Oh, not everyone can sing like Ruby Proy, try singing like Jenny Wakeman."  
  
I frowned. But Jenny Wakeman isn't any good.  
  
Choir class became a painful reminder that I wasn't on top. Everyday Ruby was asked to sing outloud for us, and everyday, they clapped and uploaded her.  
  
She wasn't really showing off. I suppose that if I was her I would have used my talent the same. There was really nothing that Ruby did wrong.  
  
No one could save me from how bad I felt, from the stinging pain that I wasn't the greatest.  
  
Kerry belongs to me  
  
Sunny belongs to My life as a preteen FOP fan  
  
Maria belongs to Mini Moose  
  
Anthony belongs to Anthony Logatto 


End file.
